Railway journal lubricator



Feb. 28, 1961 J, J HENNESSY 2,973,228

RAILWAY JOURNAL LUBRICATOR Filed Feb. 2'7, 1959 INVENTOR ATTORNEY.

United States Patent RAILWAY JOURNAL LRIQATOR James J. Hennessy, Chambersburg, Pa., assignor to Hennessy Lubricator Company, Inc., Chambersburg, Pa, a corporation of Delaware Filed Feb. 27, 1959, Ser. No. 796,136

Claims. (Cl. 308-88) The invention relates to lubrication of railway rolling stock axle journal mounting the usual Association of American Railroads (A.A.R.) journal box having an opening at its outer end through which waste packing or, preferably, a mechanical lubricator is inserted and removed and additional lubricating oil is added as required.

The invention comprises improvements upon the construction shown in earlier United States Patents 2,660,489 and 2,827,341 issued to the present inventor and, as shown in these patents, comprises a pad of oil-absorbent material applied to the lower portion of the journal and yieldingly thrust against the journal and supplied with oil from the bottom of the box by a collapsible and expandable pump chamber actuated by the crossways movement of the axle relative to the journal boxes.

The main object of the present invention is to facilitate the insertion, removal and replacement of the pad in the journal box from time to time as may be required because of deterioration of the pad as by glazing or rupture from tools or misplacement.

Other objects will appear from the detail description of the structure illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section through a railway axle journal box mounted upon a journal and equipped with a mechanical lubricator.

Figure 2 is a top View of the lubricating pad and associated structure, with parts broken away for better illustration.

Figure 3 is a vertical transverse section on line 3-3 of Figure 1.

The axle 1 has a journal 2 terminating in a collar 3. A bearing is mounted upon the journal and includes a back 5 and a liner 6. A Wedge '7 is placed on the bearing and supports the journal box through the top wall 9 of the latter. The box has a bottom wall It) merging with an upwardly extending front wall 13, an inner rear wall 11, an outer rear wall 12, and side walls 14. An opening G extends between top wall 9, side walls 14 and the outturned upper end of front wall 13. These parts are of A.A.R. standard journal box structure.

Mounted on box lower wall is a frame comprising a base member 15, one or more positioning members 16 hearing against a bracket 18 welded to the box front wall 13. The frame includes an upwardly and rearwardly extending support member 19 which is yieldable vertically and at its inner end mounts a plate-like platform 21 which is arcuate in cross section, being concaved upwardly approximately around the journal axis as a center. A distributor pad 23 which consists mainly of one or more layers of felt or other material having similar oil-absorbing qualities rests on platform 21. Preferably the felt is enclosed in a fabric cover, the lower and side portions 25 of which are of rubberized or plastic material through which oil will not pass and the upper face of which is of woven yarn with upstanding tufted piles which act as wicks to feed oil to the journal and do not tend to mat 2,973,228 Patented Feb. 28, 1961 down or cling to the journal as does the cotton waste ordinarily packed in journal boxes.

A collapsible upright cylinder pump chamber 27 depends from the forward end of pad 23. At the upper end of the chamber it is provided with a disk 28 and the lower end of which is provided with a disk 29. Disk 28 is socured to the pad and is provided with a discharge opening 3% and a check valve 31. Disk 29 has an inlet opening 32 provided with a check valve 33.

The pump is normally operated by a bell crank having a pivot 37 on the lubricator frame and including a substantially horizontal arm 38 terminating in a wide perforated paddle 39 seating disk 29, and having a substantially upright arm 40 mounting a contact member 41 which opposes the outer face of collar 3 by which the bell crank lever is oscillated as the axle plays crossways of the box during travel of the vehicle supported by the axle.

Platform 21 has a slot S which receives chamber 27 between its sides. The slot opens outwardly of the forward end of the platform. A strap or straps 35 attached to pad 23 may be grasped by the fingers of a Workman and the pad and pump chamber may be pulled out from between the journal and the platform, past collar 3 and removed from the box through its forward opening G without jacking up the box to remove wedge 7 and bearing 5, as is customary in replacing mechanical lubricators. Similarly, a substitute pad and pump chamber may be inserted beneath the journal. During removal and insertion, the pump lever may tilt on its pivot. After the pad and pump chamber are inserted, a few operations of the pump will seat it on the paddle at the inner end of the operating lever so that subsequent operations will be effective.

Once the pad has been saturated with oil it will afford adequate lubrication for the journal as soon as the journal starts to rotate and irrespective of prompt supply of oil by the pump. The pad retains approximately one pint of oil, which is adequate lubrication without additional supply by the pump for two or three thousand miles. This storage capacity serves as a safeguard against oversight in adding oil to the supply in the journal box when the oil level falls below the pump intake.

The device is simple, eifective for its intended purpose, readily inspected and maintained by the use of interchangeable pad and pump elements, and combines the use of a mechanical lubricator and a removable pad whereby maximum effective lubrication of the journal is assured.

The details of the structure may be varied substantially without departing from the spirit of the invention and the exclusive use of those modifications coming within the scope of the claims is contemplated.

I claim:

1. In a railway axle journal lubricator, a distributor pad of oil-absorbent material with its upper face curved for application to the lower portion of a journal, a platelike platform beneath and mounting said paid, a pump including a vertically collapsible chamber secured at its upper end to one end portion of said pad and depending therefrom and having an intake opening at its lower end and a discharge opening at its upper end, a frame having a base member and an upwardly extending yielding member engaging the underside of said platform and supporting the same, said pad and depending pump chamber being removable from said platform and frame members by horizontal movement of the pad and chamber lengthwise of the frame.

2. A railway axle journal lubricator structure according to claim 1 in which the pad mounting platform extends substantially the full length of the pad and has a slot receiving, between its sides, the upper end of the pump chamber, and opening through the outer end of the platform to facilitate the insertion and removal of the chamber into and out of the slot.

3. A railway axle journal lubricator structure according to claim 1 in which the pad extends substantially thefull length and width of the journal and the platform extends substantially the full length of the paid but is narrower than the pad and of less depth than the upwardly cuwed sides of the pad.

4. In a railway axle journal lubricator, a pad of oilabsorbent material and arcuate in cross section to fit against the bottom of a journal to which the lubricator is applied, a plate-like platform similarly arcuate in cross section and fitting about the outer lower face of said pad, a pump comprising a vertically collapsible chamber depending from the lower portion of said pad near the forward end thereof and having an intake opening in its lower end and a discharge opening in its upper end to said pad, the upper end of said chamber being permanently secured to said pad, a pump operating device comprising a frame having a lower base member, an upwardly inclined supporting member, yieldably engaging the underside of said platform, and a bell crank lever having a pivot on said frame and an arm extending under the lower end of said pump chamber and an arm extending upwardly in front of, but spaced from, said pad and platform, said pad and pump being removable from said platform and frame 4 by horizontal movement lengthwise of said slot and by tilting said bell crank about its pivot.

5. In combination, a railway axle journal, a bearing thereon, a journal box mounted on said bearing, a frame base member seated on the lower portion of the box and having an inner end engaging the inner wall of the box and an outer end engaging the outer wall of the box, said frame including a member extending upwardly from said first-mentioned member, a plate-like carrier yieldingly supported on said upwardly extending member, a distributor pad mounted on said carrier and fitting against the lower-portion of the journal, there being a slot in said carrier extending inwardly from the forward end of the carrier and a collaspible pump chamber secured to said pad and received between the sides of said slot, a bell crank lever with an upstanding arm opposing the end of the journal and an arm underlying the pump chamber, said lever being operable to collapse and release the pump chamber, said pad and pump chamber being movable from said carrier and frame member beneath the journal outwardly of the box by sliding said pump chamber through the open end of said slot and by collapsing said pump chamber between said frame base member and the underlying arm of the operating lever.

No references cited. 

